Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This Companion provides an overview of the composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). Sixteen chapters by leading scholars investigate aspects of his life and works and consider the manner in which critical appreciation has changed in the twentieth century. The first section deals with Bruckner's Austrian background, investigating the historical circumstances in which he worked, his upbringing in Upper Austria, and his career in Vienna. A number of misunderstandings are dealt with in the light of recent research. The remainder of the book covers Bruckner's career as church musician and symphonist, with a chapter on the neglected secular vocal music. Religious, aesthetic, formal, harmonic, and instrumental aspects are considered, while one chapter confronts the problem of the editions of the symphonies. Two concluding chapters discuss the symphonies in performance, and the history of Bruckner-reception with particular reference to German Nationalism, the Third Reich and the appropriation of Bruckner by the Nazis.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Notes on contributors (p. ix)
• Acknowledgements (p. xi)
• Chronology (p. xii)
• List of abbreviations (p. xxii)
• Part I Background
• 1 Introduction: a Catholic composer in the age of Bismarck (p. 3)
• 2 Musical life in Upper Austria in the mid-nineteenth century (p. 15)
• 3 Bruckner in Vienna (p. 26)
• Part II Choral music
• 4 Bruckner's large sacred compositions (p. 41)
• 5 Bruckner and the motet (p. 54)
• 6 Bruckner and secular vocal music (p. 64)
• Part III The symphonist
• 7 The Brucknerian symphony: an overview (p. 79)
• 8 Bruckner's symphonies - a reinterpretation: the dialectic of darkness and light (p. 92)
• 9 Programme symphony and absolute music (p. 108)
• 10 Bruckner editions: the revolution revisited (p. 121)
• 11 Bruckner and the symphony orchestra (p. 138)
• 12 Between formlessness and formality: aspects of Bruckner's approach to symphonic form (p. 170)
• 13 Formal process as spiritual progress: the symphonic slow movements (p. 190)
• 14 Bruckner and harmony (p. 205)
• Part IV Reception
• 15 Conductors and Bruckner (p. 231)
• 16 The musical image of Bruckner (p. 244)
• Notes (p. 261)
• Select bibliography (p. 289)
• Index (p. 298)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Though at first glance this book looks like just another compact man-and-his-music survey, in fact it is a volume on Anton Bruckner's music. A brief chapter on Bruckner in Vienna (from 1868) and two other background chapters comprise only about an eighth of the book. The other 13 chapters cover the vocal music--including less-known genres of the motet and song--and various aspects of the symphony, including form, harmony, and orchestration. Also included is a clear discussion of the problem of various versions and editions. Each of the ten contributors is an expert, according to the vitae provided. The analysis is quite technical and requires the reader to be familiar with musical terminology. Unfortunately, more than one author misuses the term "winds," using it when they mean woodwinds (winds comprise woodwinds and brass). As to translation, Latin texts, some well known, are translated but German titles are not. The bibliography is up-to-date, including numerous entries since 1998; the index is name only. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. R. R. Smith Rhode Island College